Google has launched its own augmented reality kit for developers, called ARCore, a lighter version of the company’s Tango platform that does not require any specialized hardware to run. ARCore is a light software development kit, similar to Apple’s ARkit, which is able to track motion, understand flat surfaces, and estimate where the light willRead More

Single family homes used to have the monopoly on smart home products. Technology not only changes how things are built but it makes them function better. As a marketing director of an IoT company serving multi family and campus communities, I keep a close eye on the big property management companies and developers. I reachedRead More

Google’s self-driving division Waymo has announced it will be retiring the Firefly car, the nearly iconic pod-like vehicle that was manufactured in-house to experiment. Waymo is now moving to mass produced vehicles, like the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. It received 600 minivans from Fiat Chrysler last year and is in the process of outfitting the vehiclesRead More

DeepMind, a British artificial intelligence firm acquired by Google in 2014, is building an AI capable of “imagination” and understanding the consequences of previous actions. In two research papers submitted last week, DeepMind describes how the AI would be able to “construct a plan” and remember information that may be important in the future. SeeRead More

Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans spent a day with Chandler, Ariz Fire & Police Department, testing the car’s detection system for emergency vehicles. The minivans are outfitted with Waymo’s latest suite of sensors, which can hear from twice the distance and can also see flashing lights from much farther away. See Also: Google narrows caseRead More

Waymo has dropped three of the four patent claims against Uber, as it tries to narrow the case against Uber before the October court date. The lawsuit centers on Anthony Levandowski, an ex-Google exec who allegedly stole 14,000 confidential documents when he left the company to start Otto, which was then sold to Uber. LevandowskiRead More

Google’s self-driving division Waymo has hired Satish Jeyachandran, the former director of hardware engineering at Tesla, a close competitor in the self-driving race. Jeyachandran will lead the hardware division, according to Bloomberg, focused on building Lidar, radar, cameras, sensors, and silicon for the company’s self-driving cars. See Also: Waymo working on competitor to Uber’s self-drivingRead More

Google is launching a new video standard for YouTube creators that want to shoot VR content. The new standard, VR180, records 180-degree videos, reducing the amount of specialized software and hardware needed to shoot in virtual reality. Not all VR content needs to have 360-degree viewing, especially if the content is designed to be viewedRead More

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced last December that its self-driving project would have its own division inside the corporation. That division became Waymo, which analysts at Morgan Stanley believe could be worth $70 billion if it is ever spun-out to a standalone company. The analysis works off the assumption that Waymo cars andRead More

Autonomous cars will dominate the streets by 2022, according to Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance Chairman Carlos Ghosn. The firm, which has an established autonomous car program, wants to give drivers control of their cars; their autonomous cars are not driverless cars — instead, drivers can decide when they want to drive and when they want the carRead More